Week 3 in Independencia

How’s the beach? You guys are in Florida correct?  I should expect letters from all of you then because I know you’re just sitting around eating junk and watching rubbish. Did you guys get my pics from the mountain? It’s pretty sweet! I´ll send some other pics later. What’s the deal with the BYU app?  Should I wait for later or what? Maybe I can write the essays here and send them to Keisha and she can finish the application. That would be great but who knows? 

Since you guys are all together I was wondering what the Libro de Mormon Cameron had after his mission_ from Landon or whatever_ I’m curious of the best way to organize my scriptures for lessons and stuff... I’m pretty sure my comp has all of the scriptures memorized. As for Grandma and Granddad I received the letter from that’s in the envelope that’s the first that’s not in pouch or folded. I think it’s the first one to be sent to the mission that’s why it came faster or maybe pouch is slower... anyways as for this week it went super-fast! it was way good though things are slowly getting normal and I´m getting more and more used to the people and the language although some days I´m lost when people talk or during lessons. Monday we found a lady to wash our clothes which is super sweet! I think were spoiled being in the city but who knows_ all I know is that if we had to wash our own clothes apparently it would take all day. After we wrote we met some other missionaries in the centro and went to this restaurant called pollo campestro it was pretty good but it was like a Latino kfc but we just went to have lunch and see some other missionaries. Afterwards we met this man who is a Jew outside who some of the other missionaries had tracted into before. He was a super nice guy and told us Pollo Campestro wasn´t clean ja ja. Anyways, I´m pretty sure he works here. He is from Israel but lived in the U.S. for like 30 years. He knows Hebrew, English, and Spanish. Afterwards I got a watch! I hated asking my comp all the time what time it was. I didn´t want to wear my other watch because I didn´t want to attract attention to myself so I´ll prob just pack it away until later. We had a 2 Noche de Hogar which is FHE here and I thought it was so cool how the Church is the same everywhere you go. People talk, teach, and learn, all the same with the church no matter where you are at in the world. It’s so sweet! Wednesday was a rough day. We had tons of appointments fall through. People were kind of rude but it doesn’t matter they´re all children of God and if he can love them I can too. Anyways, we even had a Lady who is super good and came to church last Sunday we taught her and she was super accepting to the Gospel and she loved church. But, she said she was too accustomed to her own church. It’s a shame that she’s now a member because she is a great lady but, maybe later she will open her heart. We had taught her a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation and she wants to live with her family again but she is too accustomed to her own church but maybe later. A lot of the time when people say no you just have to realize your planting seed and hope that later they will accept the Gospel. Anyways, I was getting pretty down but we were walking down the street and saw a Man walking with his Daughter and I said to my comp lets go talk to him. I went and started talking to him and we explained who we are and what we do and he just started crying and said I want to change. We asked if we could teach him and we went to his house and to his Family and taught them Lesson 3. His wife is pregnant and they have 3 kids 1 is Over 8 which is sweet. Families are so great. Because our message is so focused on them and families are usually more open to the Gospel because they are humble and want to live eternally together. Anyways He was super accepting to the Gospel and when we invited him to Church he said yes and looked at his family and said vamos which is interpreted to mean let´s go. It´s so great to know how God is preparing chosen people to hear the Gospel every day and We can´t give up when times get hard that’s when God tests us If we can make it through that’s when he blesses us. Thursday we had a Multi'Zone meeting it was super long but super good! Elder Lopez and I prepared a sweet lesson about Circulos de influencia or circles of influence. We drew circles on the board and had 3 people shoot at it with a toy bow and arrow from differing distances. We showed after how each point in the target is a member or someone who relates to the church less active, inactive, leader, anyways each of these people has a circle of influence and the majority of the time your investigators will live in these circles of influence. These areas are the best place to work because the neighbors are people that see them recognize a difference and we can use these member to receive references to teach. We talked how Ammon and King Lamoni met his father at first he said to kill him when he said no and other stuff happened jaja) I explained better in the lesson= after the father desired to learn about this religion. Not because of the missionary but because of his son. The Member. It was a great lesson none the less. Also at the multizona all the missionary companions got cell phones which is so much better for missionary work. Many times we will go somewhere and an appt will fall through or something this will help so much to be able to confirms lessons in the day.  But things are going super great here. The man and his family got sick and wasn’t able to go to church but there’s always next week! Yesterday we went and had lunch with a family in the ward and they asked when my birthday was I told them the 15 and they freaked out and invited us to lunch next week jaja. I honestly didn’t think I was going to do anything for my birthday and didn’t really care. Maybe just buy a cake or something Saturday night. You guys should check out the Satan’s rebellion and the doubts and questions part of the Liahona this month. They are super good talks! My Spanish continues to improve and things are getting better. We had a man at church we have been trying to get to church for a while and finally came. So now we have a date for the 22 and hopefully 1 for the 15. Elder Lopez really knows what he’s doing. But it’s hard because sometimes I get caught up in greeny pride. Hahaha anyways what do you guys want to know? Have fun in Flo Rida! I have like 20 more minutes if you want to say anything else. I will send some sweet pics from the week.

Peace and Love,

Elder Hendricks

P.S. Tell my Boys to write me! I want to here from them and about the Lou